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Kyla Uribe

Professor Encinias

CAS 115

15 November 2023

How Has Forced Sterilization Effected Immigrant Groups In Society

Armstrong, Lisa. “Sterilized by the State.” Essence, vol. 42, no. 12, Essence Communications,

Inc., 2012, pp. 74-78.

Lisa Armstrong examines how eugenics laws and movements have played a role in the

forced sterilization amongst immigrant communities. These programs have been

affiliated with committing involuntary sterilization on 7,600 people, those being racial

minorities and immigrants. Armstrong considers the Eugenicists belief that the only way

the human race can improve is if those that were classified as poor, alcoholics or disabled

were prevented from having children. She explains the threats and manipulation that the

Eugenic board has used against women of color and immigrant women, by denying

health care and welfare benefits and grouping them as feebleminded, illiterate, and

retarded. She provides cases of forced sterilization along with the fight for justice against

these wrongful acts, with a result of compensation from the state. The author, Lisa

Armstrong, is a journalist who has reported from several countries. She’s written multiple

investigative journals about forced sterilization in the U.S, how poor mental health care

has increased suicides in state prisons, and the rapes in the camps in Haiti. She is aware

of the many different injustices that many immigrants, people of color, poor people,

unmarried mothers, and disabled individuals face. She grew up in Nairobi, Kenya faced
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with many humanitarian issues she decided to travel to different countries to write stories

about their experiences with the same issues.

Boehm, Inka Skłodowska. “PUNISHMENT AND PREJUDICE: REPRODUCTIVE

COERCION IN IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT DETENTION

CENTERS.” The American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law, vol.

29, no. 4, 2022, pp. 529–61.

In this book Inka Sklodowska Boehm describes the discriminatory history of

reproductive coercion in detention in the U.S. She then goes into further detail about the

current practices in detention centers and the standard reproductive rights and freedoms

for incarcerated and detained individuals. Boehm argues that since forced sterilization

constitutes punishment that lawmakers must analyze it under the 8th amendment, which

prohibits excessive bails and fines including cruel and unusual punishment. This further

demonstrates that involuntary sterilization ties with eugenics. The author recommends a

more heightened standard of consent and suggests removing all constraints to

reproductive care in detention centers. Overall, forced sterilization procedures are

inherently penal and that any immigrant that falls victim should be protected under the

8th amendment. Boehm is a reproductive justice advocate interested in human rights and

civil rights law which focuses on the intersection of gender, race, and the environment.

She is a community lawyer with the Systemic Advocacy & Law Reform Unit, at the

Legal Aid DC.

Davis, Charles. “ICE Said to Transfer Women out of Detention Center That Became Infamous

over Allegations of Forced Sterilization.” Business Insider, US edition, 2021.

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In this article, Charles Davis takes a deeper look into the Irwin County Detention Center

in Georgia. This center was under congressional investigation in 2020 after a nurse at a

privately-run facility reported that women were being sterilized without their consent.

There have been so many cases, that even the Mexican government confirmed that one of

its citizens had been a victim of unnecessary gynecological procedure while detained

there. Davis describes that dozens of women have been taking part in a class-action

lawsuit against the gynecologist who performed these unapproved surgeries in which

some cases were tied with sexual assault. Immigrant women were released from that

Detention Center into a new one 140 miles away which has a reputation for medical

neglect and not hosting women for decades. Now a new organization called the Detention

Watch Network that advocates for shutting down all detention centers and releasing all

the women detainees, interrupt presidential speeches to demand the abolishment of

private detentions. Davis is a journalist who has reported on life along the US-Mexico

border, the impact of the war on drugs in Nicaragua, the rise of socially conscious

tourism in Ecuador, and international intrigue in Venezuela. He has won an award at the

Southern California Journalism Awards in 2019, on his coverage of labor violations in the

entertainment industry.

Davis, Sabrina. “Unrepeatable Harms: Forced Sterilization at ICE Detention Centers.” Human

Rights Brief, vol. 25, no. 2, 2022, pp. 153-160

In this book, Sabrina Davis shines a light on how coerced sterilization against immigrant

women is a part of a much broader systemic medical crisis in detention centers. That

includes a lack of consent, accessibility to treatment, and at times, death. Davis believes

that performing these involuntary sterilizations on women detainees in the U.S. is

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violating its obligations under the Convention Against Torture and Nelson Mandela

Rules. The United States has had a history of forced sterilization to control the

“undesirable population” which at that time was non-white, physically disabled, and

mentally ill individuals. The author unveils the ignorance that the U.S holds by

sanctioning China for using forced sterilization against Uyghur people even though they

recently committed reproductive coercion and experimental procedures on immigrant

women. She argues that with the evidence of previous coercion, the United States needs

to recognize their obligation under the Rules and must reaffirm and strengthen its

obligations under the Convention against Torture. Both which directly prohibit the

horrific acts that occurred at these detention centers, and that the U.S. must be held liable

for its violations of these international instruments. Davis is currently a third year law

student at Washington College of Law focusing in both civil right and criminal defense

work. She serves as the Dean's Fellow for the Office of the Public Interest, as well as the

Publications Editor for the Journal of Gender, Social Policy and the Law.

Translated by ContentEngine LLC. “More Allegations of Mexican Migrants for Forced

Sterilizations in the U.S.” CE Noticias Financieras, English ed., ContentEngine LLC, a

Florida limited liability company, 2020.

This translation of the book describes the increased cases in forced surgeries against

Mexican women. Many suffered irregular surgery at the Irwin Detention Center in

Georgia, where many whistleblowers have expressed their concern about doctors creating

these heinous acts on immigrants. These women have to deal with agonizing pain, such

as the removal of their uterus, hysterectomy, and other reproductive organs. The author

implies that the ICE detention centers use detainees for experimental procedures. They
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go further into the stating that thousands of people try to cross the southern U.S. border

each year, many trying to flee the conflict or poverty happening in Central America.

Those who are crossing the borders or don’t have correct documents are placed in these

centers to be medically abused and neglected. This translation is very neatly organized

and even linked other sources to support their text. Many of those sources being from

organizations and government agencies.